They change every month, but Wilderness Park hours set

December 12, 2012 2:21 PM

The Claremont City Council Tuesday unanimously approved 12 sets of rotating park hours for the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. The opening and closing of the parking lot will correspond with those times.

The Wilderness Loop’s hours will rotate based on the year’s fluctuating dawn and dusk times. The park will be open as early as 5:30 a.m. and as late as 8:30 a.m. in the summer months with hours ranging from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the fall and winter. Operating hours of the Thompson Creek Trail will remain the same, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The council also approved a permit policy for parking at the Wilderness Park and Thompson trail lots.

Trying to make the park available to the public as much as possible while heeding noise and safety concerns, the council felt the new set of flexible hours, though numerous, presented the best solution for both sides.

“We compromised,” said Mayor Pro Tem Opanyi Nasiali, “and I think it’s a good compromise to try to solve the problem of noise and other disturbances...and at same time make the Wilderness Park open to the public with as much daylight time as possible.”

In other meeting news:

-With a 3-2 vote, the council rejected a request to further restrict parking on Via Santa Catarina, a residential street in the Claraboya neighborhood located near an entrance to Johnson’s Pasture.

-The council directed staff to look into an overall master plan for the Wilderness Park, specifically looking at how to address parking at the popular Claremont hiking destination.

-The council unanimously directed the city to send out a drafted Request for Proposal for new banking services. Direction was spurred by requests by Occupy Claremont members, urging the city to move the city’s money from Bank of America to a local credit union. Banks within a 25-mile radius of Claremont will be eligible, according to Finance Director Adam Pirrie, who also said that he would make the names of interested banks available to the public.